History 227
The History and Practice of Whiteness
Tuesday/Thursday 11:00-12:20, King 127
Spring 2014
Renee Romano
Office: Rice 18
Phone: x6584
Email: rromano@oberlin.edu
Office Hours:
Mondays, 10:00-12:00
Thursdays, 1:30-3:30
(and by appointment)
“No one was white before he/she came to America.”
James Baldwin
This course examines the construction, practices, boundaries, and power of whiteness
throughout American history. Moving chronologically through five different eras—the colonial
period before 1790, the early Republic from 1790-1860, the age of immigration from 1860 to the
1924 immigration law, the period from 1924 through 1965, and the post-1965 era—we will
explore a range of questions about how racial categories and racial hierarchies have operated in
America’s past and present. Who gets to be white in different historical eras and how has that
line been determined? What does being white mean for those defined as such? How have the
boundaries of whiteness been policed and how have those on the borders sought whiteness?
How has whiteness been privileged in different historical eras and what role have the courts,
the government, cultural representations, and personal actions played in establishing and
promoting racial prerogatives? How has whiteness historically been understood, criticized and
challenged? Since whiteness is an identity that is intersectional and relational, the class will
particularly explore how policing sexuality has served to construct and maintain whiteness, as
well as how class, gender, and ethnic background shape the experience of being “white.”
Over the course of the semester, we will examine these questions and explore ongoing scholarly
debates through readings from a range of fields, including history, American Studies, critical
legal studies, sociology, and literary studies. The course will also consider the invention,
practice, and privileging of whiteness in a variety of primary sources, from memoirs to films to
fiction to political tracts. History 227 is not a lecture class. Although I will sometimes offer short
lectures and will always try to provide contextual information, the idea and workings of race in
the United States is a topic that demands engagement and discussion. Much of our class time
will be spent discussing and debating the readings; the quality of class will thus depend on each
1
student coming to class prepared to talk thoughtfully about the assigned readings. This also
counts as an elective toward the majors in Comparative American Studies and GSFS.
Required Texts:
The following books are available at the bookstore and are on print reserve at Mudd Library:
Kirsten Fischer, Suspect Relations: Sex, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina
David Freund, Colored Property: State Policy and White Racial Politics in Suburban America
Ian Haney-Lopez, White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race
Matthew Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race
David Roediger, Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream
Gregory Williams, Life On the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He
Was Black
All course readings not from the required books (marked with an asterisk (*) on the syllabus)
are available on the course blackboard site under the “Course Readings” heading. I highly
recommend that you print out the online readings and bring them with you to class.
Besides the required readings, there are two required films for the course (Birth of a Nation and
Gentlemen’s Agreement). These films will be shown outside of our regular class session at a time
and place to be determined as a group.
Course Requirements:
The main requirements for History 227 are three papers (a 3-4 page primary source analysis and
two 5-6 page readings papers), and a take-home final exam. In addition, grades will also be
based on a group presentation, and attendance and participation (including three short
ungraded written responses). All assignments must be handed in for students to receive credit
for the class.
Attendance, Participation, and 3 short ungraded responses (15% of total grade):
Your active involvement with the class is extremely important. Attendance and
participation are critical to your learning and your success in History 227. Therefore, if you
miss more than three classes over the course of the semester, your final grade will be
affected. For every absence beyond the third, five points will be deducted from your final
course grade. Excused absences will not count towards this total; absences will only be
excused in cases of serious illness, real personal/family emergencies, or unavoidable
conflicts, and you must inform me of your absence in advance of class if you do not want it
to count as unexcused.
Please come to every class prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that day on the
syllabus. Class will always focus on the readings; if you are not prepared, you will not be
able to participate. If you have trouble speaking in class, please come see me during my
office hours so we can develop strategies to help you become a more active participant in
class discussion.
As part of your participation grade, you are required to turn in three short reflective papers
(of 1-2 pages). These short writings will not be formally graded, but they will factor into
your participation grade. The first response, which will ask you to reflect upon your own
positionality in relation to the course topic and material, will be due at our second class
meeting of February 6th. The other two will focus on the required films and will be due on
the days that the films are being discussed.
2
Primary Source Analysis Paper (15% of final grade)—Due in class, March 11th
Each student will write a short paper (3-4 pages) analyzing an academic article about race
published between 1880 and 1920. The paper will be due at the beginning of our class
session on March 11. More details will be posted to the Assignments section of the
Blackboard
Reading Discussion Papers (2 papers, each 20% of final grade)
Five of the class sessions have been set aside specifically for the discussion of specific
books:
February 18:
March 4:
March 20:
April 17:
April 24:
Discussion of Suspect Relations
Discussion of The Wages of Whiteness
Discussion of White By Law
Discussion of Killers of the Dream
Discussion of Life Along the Color Line
Each student is required to write two short papers (4-6 pages) in response to the readings
for two of the discussion sessions. Your first paper must focus on one of the first three
discussion sessions for the class (scheduled for February 8th, March 4, or March 20th). Your
second paper must focus on either of the last two discussion sessions, scheduled for April
17 or April 24. These papers should analyze the assigned book and put that reading in
conversation with material the class has already covered. More specific guidelines will be
posted at the Assignment section of the blackboard site.
Reading papers will be due by 5:00 pm on the day after the discussion has taken place (for
example, if you choose to write a paper about the Feb. 18th readings, the paper is due by
5:00 pm on Feb. 19th).
Group Presentation (5% of final grade)
For each of the five discussion sessions, a group will be assigned to coordinate and run a
supplemental activity or presentation related to that session’s readings. These
presentations/activities should take up no more than forty minutes of class time. Students
will be assigned to groups based upon their interests early in the semester. Groups must
meet with me in advance of their presentation in order to discuss their plans. You may
choose to write a reading paper for the session where your group is presenting, but you are
not required to do so.
Take-Home Final Exam (25% of final grade)—Due by 4:00pm on May 14th
There will be a take-home final exam that will be handed out on May 8th, the last day of
class. The exam is due back by 4:00 p.m. May 14th. In the take-home final exam, students
will be asked to bring together course readings and lectures to respond to a single question
in an approximately 8-10 page essay.
Grade Breakdown:
Reading Paper #1:
Reading Paper #2:
Primary Source Paper:
Group Presentation:
Take Home Final Exam:
Participation and 3 short responses:
20% of final grade
20% of final grade
15% of final grade
5% of final grade
25% of final grade
15% of final grade
All work will be graded on a 100-point scale. Assignments will be marked down 3 points for
every day they are overdue, unless I have given my approval for the assignment to be handed
3
in late before the due date. As a general rule, I will approve extensions in the case of illness or
emergencies, but not because you have other work due at the same time, so please plan
accordingly. Assignments will not be accepted more than five days past the original due date.
Course Policies
Oberlin Honor Code: All work for this course must be done in compliance with the Oberlin
Honor Code, which means that it must be your own. Any cases of plagiarism will be dealt with
immediately according to the letter of college policy. You must acknowledge when you use the
ideas of other people (whether that be other students or published materials from websites,
books, the media, etc.).
General Courtesy: Please come to class on time, and once you’re here, plan on staying for the
full class session. I consider it disrespectful to me and rude to the rest of the class when a
student walks out once class has started and walks back in a few minutes later. Also, be sure to
TURN OFF your cell phone before class starts.
Students with Disabilities: If you receive any disability-related accommodations, please provide
documentation and let me know early in the class so that any necessary accommodations can be
arranged.
Extra Help: My door is open if you ever feel you need extra help or direction in any way, or if
you would like to discuss the reading or other topics of interest to you. Besides my regularly
scheduled office hours, I am available by appointment. The best way to reach me is email. I am
also happy to provide feedback on drafts, whether complete drafts of papers or just a topic
sentence. If you would me to review draft writings, please get them to me at least four days
before the paper is due so I will have time to read it and get it back to you for revision.
4
COURSE AND READING SCHEDULE
2/4: Introduction:
2/6: Studying Whiteness/Studying Race (Positionality Reflection Due in Class)
Matthew Jacobson, “Introduction: The Fabrication of Race” in Whiteness of a Different Color,
pp. 1-14
Richard Dyer, “The Matter of Whiteness” in Rothenberg, ed., White Privilege, p. 9-12*
Joe Feagin, “The White Racial Frame: Why a New Concept?” in The White Racial Frame, 121*
James Baldwin, “On Being “White”…and Other Lies” in Essence, April 1984*
For class: write a short (1-2 pages) reflection about how you view America’s racial landscape and
where you place yourself in it. What experiences have shaped your sense of your own racial identity?
In what ways has your gender, sexual, or class identity shaped your perspective or experience of
race? Please note, I will collect these but they will not be graded.
Part I: Inventing Race in the Colonial Era (Book: Suspect Relations)
2/11: The Ideas They Brought With Them: Thinking about Difference in Colonial America
Winthrop Jordan, “First Impressions: Initial English Confrontations with Africans,” in The
White Man’s Burden, pp. 3-25*
Dinesh D’Souza, “Ignoble Savages” from The End of Racism, pp. 55-64*
David Hume, “Of National Characters” (1748) and James Beattie, “A Response to Hume”
(1770)*
2/13: Slavery and Servitude: Power, Labor, and Categories in Colonial America
Jacqueline Jones, A Dreadful Deceit, pp. 1-7, 22-45*
(the entire chapter is copied, but you may skip/skim the middle section, p. 7-22, if you wish)
Edmund Morgan, “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox,” The Journal of American
History (June 1972): 99-108*
Robert Beverly, “Of the Servants and Slaves in Virginia (1705)*
Virginia Slave Laws, 1660s*
2/18: Discussion Session 1: Constructing Race from the Ground Up
Kirsten Fischer, Suspect Relations (entire)
5
Part II: Whiteness in the New Nation, 1790-1860 (Book: Wages of Whiteness)
2/20: The State of Racial Thinking in the Early United States
Matthew Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, 13-38
Melissa Nobles, Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics, 25-48*
Thomas Jefferson, excerpt from Notes on the State of Virginia*
2/25: The Practice of Whiteness in Antebellum America
Ariella Gross, “Performing Whiteness” in What Blood Don’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in
America (2008), pp. 48-72*
Bridget Heneghan, “White Goods and the Construction of Race”* in Whitewashing America,
pp. 3-43*
2/27: Cowboys and Indians: Westward Expansion and New Theories
of Race
Reginald Horsman, “Race and Manifest Destiny: The
Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism”, pp. 139-144*
Juan F. Perea, “Los Olivados: On the Making of Invisible
People” in Critical White Studies, pp. 258-262*
“Ethiop” (William J. Wilson), “What Shall We Do With the
White People?” (1860)*
3/4: Discussion Session II: Making a White Working Class
David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness (entire)
Part III: Whiteness in the Age of Emancipation and
Immigration (Book: White By Law)
3/6: Whiteness and Race After Emancipation (Film reflection due in class)
Linda Faye Williams, “America’s First Underserving and Deserving Poor,” in The
Constraint of Race, 25-68*
Kirk Savage, “Common Soldier Monuments” in Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves, 162-192,
207-208*
Birth of a Nation (1915) (time and place of screening TBD)
3/11: Theories of Race, 1880-1920 (Primary Source Paper Due at start of class)
6
3/13: Museum Visit—meet at the Allen Museum
Martin Berger, “Genre Painting and the Foundation of Modern Race” in Sight Unseen:
Whiteness and American Visual Culture, 11-40*
Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves, pp. 8-17*
3/18: Immigrants and the Borders of Whiteness
Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, Chapter 2, pp. 39-90
Thomas Guglielmo, “Rethinking Whiteness Historiography: The Case of Italians in
Chicago, 1890-1945” in White Out, pp. 49-61*
Speech by Senator Ellison DuRant Smith on Immigration Quotas, April 9, 1924*
Speech by Congressman Robert Clancy on Immigration Quotas, April 8, 1924*
3/20: Discussion Session III: Legal Determinations of Race
Ian Haney Lopez, White By Law, Chapters 1-5, pp. 1-108, Appendix A and B, pp. 163-182
Matt Jacobson, “Naturalization and the Courts” in Whiteness of a Different Color, 223-24
Part IV: Expanding and Investing in Whiteness,
1924-1965
(Books: Killers of the Dream and Life on the Color
Line)
4/1: Expanding the State and Institutionalizing White
Privilege
David Freund, Colored Property, Chapters 1-5, pp.
1-240
Everyone is required to read chapter 1; the class will be split into four groups, each of
which will be responsible for reading one of the other chapters and teaching it to the class
4/3: White Consciousness in the North
Freund, Colored Property, Chapters 6-8, pp. 243-381 (will need to skim sections)
4/8: Whiteness and Masculinity: Guest scholar, Prof. Michael Kimmel (Sociology, Stony Brook Univ.)
Michael Kimmel, “Introduction: America, the Angry,” in Angry White Men, pp. 1-27*
Michael Kimmel and Abby Ferber, “Reading Right: The Western Tradition in White
Supremacist Discourse,” Sociological Focus, 33:2 (May 2000): 193-213*
4/10: NO CLASS MEETING (start reading Smith, Killers of the Dream)
7
4/15: Becoming Caucasian: The Case of Jews (Film reflection due in class)
Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, Chapters 3&5, 91-135, 171-199
Karen Brodkin Sacks, “How Jews Became White Folks” in Race, pp. 78-102*
Chad Heap, Slumming, 114-129, 217-230*
Gentlemen’s Agreement (Screening Time TBD)
4/17: Discussion Session IV: The Psychology of Segregation or Southern White Consciousness
Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream (entire)
James Baldwin, “Going to Meet the Man” (1965), pp. 229-249*
4/22: Women’s Experience of Whiteness in the 20th century
Dana Frank, “White Working-Class Women and the Race Question,” in International Labor
and Working-Class History 54 (Fall 1998): 80-102*
Rickie Solinger, “Race and ‘Value’: Black and White Illegitimate Babies in the United States,
1945-1965,” from Gender and History 4:3 (Autumn 1992): 343-363*
Renee Romano, “’Immoral Conduct’: White Women,
Racial Transgressions and Custody Disputes,” in
“Bad” Mothers: The Politics of Blame in 20th-century
America, pp. 230-251*
4/24: Discussion Session V: Living Whiteness and Blackness
Gregory Williams, Life on the Color Line (entire)
4/29: Racial Privilege in a “Post-Racial” Age
George Lipsitz, “Civil Rights Laws and White
Privilege” in The Possessive Investment in Whiteness,
24-46*
Charles Gallagher, “Color-Blind Privilege: The Social
and Political Functions of Erasing the Color Line in
Post Race America,” Race, Gender, and Class 10:4
(2003): 1-17*
Ian Haney Lopez, White By Law, Chapter 7, pp. 139-142
“Why It Costs More To Adopt a White Baby,” ABCNEWS, March 12, 2002*
8
5/1: The Borders of Whiteness in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Ian Haney Lopez, White By Law, Chapter 8, pp. 143-162
John Hartigan, Jr., “Who Are These White People?: ‘Rednecks,’ ‘Hillbillies,’ And ‘White
Trash’ as Marked Racial Subjects” in White Out, pp. 95-111*
Lise Funderburg, “The Changing Face of America,” (article and photo gallery), National
Geographic, October 2013*
5/6: Representing and Redeeming Whiteness After Civil Rights
Justin Gomer, “Let the Dead Bury the Living”: Hollywood Imagines America’s Colorblind
Past”*
Hua Hsu, “The End of White America,” The Atlantic, January 1, 2009*
In class: Watch Martin Mull’s, “The History of White People in America: Part I” (1985)
5/8: Dismantling Whiteness?
Joe Feagin, “Toward a Truly Multiracial Democracy” in The White Racial Frame, 192-229*
Ian Haney Lopez, White By Law, Chapter 6, 109-138
Andrea Smith, “The Problem with Privilege”*
5/14: Take-Home Final Exam Due by 4:00 p.m.
9